Page 25 - MERCIAN Eagle 2017

1 MERCIAN’S Recce Platoon Achieve a Gold Medal in the Cambrian Patrol
Capt Elliott
The MERCIAN Regiment has now existed for ten years and for most of that history was comprised of four Battalions. In that time a number of teams have entered
the Cambrian Patrol Exercise, the Army’s Premier Patrols competition, but in all that time the elusive Gold Medal has never been achieved. Finally in
route and the radio operator prepared the communications.
With the Orders delivered it was down to the serious business of putting one foot in front of the other, for 60 kms, carrying 50kgs of kit, and climbing over some of Brecon’s harshest terrain. The team dealt
The team in Sennybridge camp after receiving their Gold Medals. From left to right: Cpl Lander, LCpl Bellamy, LCpl Grice, LCpl Podmore, Capt Elliott, LCpl Taylor, LCpl Wilson, Pte Coley
competition and with some pretty serious sleep deprivation kicking in, the team finally crossed the finish line.
When all the teams had finished we
were gathered into the presentation hall in Sennybridge Camp to hear the results. The team were nervous; for the last 6 weeks and certainly for the last 48 hours we had poured all our efforts into this competition. We had worked during our weekends, we’d revised at night to learn as much as we could about our subjects and we had put ourselves through some pretty considerable pain, but had it paid off? We were the very
2017, 1 MERCIAN’s Recce Platoon managed to end that drought by earning
a Gold Medal after five weeks of training which culminated in completing the 48 hour Cambrian Patrol Exercise.
‘With the Orders delivered it was down to the serious business of putting one foot in front of the other’
with chemical weapons, treated casualties, swam across a freezing reservoir, arrested enemy insurgents, called in artillery missions and assaulted enemy positions. At each stand the team excelled; each man in the team knew his role
Our training started as soon as the Platoon returned from Summer leave. After a week of lessons in camp we deployed
to Dartmoor for our first exercise. This
was the opportunity for each of the Platoon’s specialists to start spreading all the knowledge that they had gained. The Platoon shifted its sleeping patterns so
that most of the training was conducted at night so that when we had to operate at night on the actual Cambrian Patrol then it wouldn’t be a challenge for the team. After five days of training in Okehampton Camp the team deployed onto Dartmoor training area for their first long range patrol. The team walked 40 kms in total over 36 hours. Most of the Platoon had never trained in Dartmoor before and after patrolling all the way from the North of the training area
to the very South, they have come to the informed decision that they would rather not train there again.
After returning from Dartmoor the whole team completed a team medics course to ensure that our Battlefield Casualty drills were going to be up to scratch and the week after that the Platoon headed to the Brecon Beacons for our final confirmation exercise. The team patrolled across 40 kms over the Brecon Beacons’ highest peaks. The rest of the Platoon who were supporting the exercise set-up realistic scenarios for the team to deal with, similar to the scenarios that we would encounter on the patrol itself.
In the second week of October the training was over and we headed to Brecon for the actual competition. The team had a lot of expectation resting on them, we had trained hard and were expected to come home with a win for the Bn.
The patrol started at 0600 in the morning and after a kit check the first stand was Orders delivery. Everyone in the team had their role; the 2ic delivered the Combat Service Support, the team’s scout wrote the
and each one of them knew they could rely on their team mates to deliver their best.
The Cambrian Patrol is exhausting; when you’re 24 hours into the patrol, you’ve marched 30 kms,
you’ve only had 2 hours
last team to have our result read out, but it was the result we had all dreamed of hearing: ‘1 MERCIAN are awarded a Gold Medal.’ We sprung to our feet and enthusiastically received our medals from Commander 160 Bde.
Well done to the lads who passed the selection to make it into the team and thank you to everyone else
in Recce Platoon who worked so hard to support us on all the exercises.
sleep and you know
you’ve got another
30kms still to go your
mind can really start
to make you doubt
yourself; but if there’s
one thing I’ve learnt
in my eight months
as the Recce Platoon
commander, it’s that
there is no task too hard for my boys. They may be in pain, they may be tired, they may complain (a lot) but they will never be beaten. 48 hours after we’d started the
‘The team were nervous; for the last 6 weeks and certainly for the last 48 hours we had poured all our efforts into this competition’
Training on Dartmoor in September
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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